Oklahoma governor signs Texas-style ban on most abortions

Oklahoma’s Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt has signed a Texas-style abortion ban that prohibits abortions after about six weeks of being pregnant

By SEAN MURPHY Related Press

3 May 2022, 23:03

• 4 min read

OKLAHOMA CITY -- Oklahoma’s Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt signed a Texas-style abortion ban on Tuesday that prohibits abortions after about six weeks of being pregnant, part of a nationwide push in GOP-led states hopeful that the conservative U.S. Supreme Court docket will uphold new restrictions.

“I would like Oklahoma to be probably the most pro-life state within the nation," Stitt tweeted after signing the invoice.

Stitt's signing of the bill comes on the heels of a leaked draft opinion from the nation's excessive court docket that it's considering weakening or overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade choice that legalized abortion nearly 50 years ago.

The bill Stitt signed takes effect instantly with his signature, and the Oklahoma Supreme Courtroom on Tuesday denied an emergency request to briefly halt the bill. Abortion providers say now that the new law is in impact, they may immediately cease providing services for women after six weeks of being pregnant.

“While the law is in impact, which it now's as a result of the governor signed it, abortion companies after six weeks will probably be largely unavailable," mentioned Rabia Muqaddam, a workers legal professional for the New York-based Center for Reproductive Rights, which is representing Oklahoma abortion providers within the case. “It’s a short-term loss, however we’re hopeful that the Oklahoma Supreme Courtroom will nonetheless grant us relief."

The new law prohibits abortions as soon as cardiac activity can be detected in an embryo, which specialists say is roughly six weeks into a pregnancy, before many ladies know they are pregnant. An analogous invoice authorized in Texas last 12 months led to a dramatic discount within the variety of abortions performed in that state, with many women going to Oklahoma and different surrounding states for the procedure.

Dr. Iman Alsaden, the medical director of Deliberate Parenthood Nice Plains, said Texas' law that took effect in September has given their employees an concept of what a post-Roe country may appear to be.

“Since that day, my colleagues and I've usually handled sufferers who are fleeing their communities to hunt care," Alsaden stated. “They’re taking day without work of work, taking day out of faculty and taking time away from their household obligations to get the care that until September 2021 they had been capable of get safely and readily of their communities."

The bill authorizes abortions if performed as the results of a medical emergency, however there are no exceptions if the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest.

Just like the Texas regulation, the Oklahoma invoice would permit personal residents to sue abortion providers or anybody who helps a woman obtain an abortion for as much as $10,000. After the U.S. Supreme Courtroom allowed that mechanism to remain in place, other Republican-led states sought to copy Texas’ ban. Idaho’s governor signed the first copycat measure in March, though it has been quickly blocked by the state’s Supreme Court docket.

Stitt earlier this year signed a bill to make performing an abortion a felony crime in Oklahoma, however that measure is just not set to take impact till this summer time, and authorized experts say it is more likely to be blocked because the Roe v. Wade resolution still remains the legislation of the land.

The variety of abortions carried out each year in Oklahoma, which has 4 abortion clinics, has declined steadily over the last two decades, from more than 6,200 in 2002 to three,737 in 2020, the fewest in more than 20 years, based on information from the Oklahoma State Department of Well being. In 2020, before the Texas regulation was passed, about 9% of the abortions performed in Oklahoma have been ladies from Texas.

Earlier than the Texas ban took effect on Sept. 1, about 40 girls from Texas had abortions performed in Oklahoma every month, the data exhibits. That quantity jumped to 222 Texas women in September and 243 in October.